By: John Fehlen on October 21, 2024
Several years ago, while living and pastoring in Oregon (which I still do), I was invited to speak at a leadership conference hosted at a large church in Washington State. O.K. Now, let me tell you the expanded and more truthful version of that last sentence because I just glossed over the truth to make…
By: Tim Clark on October 21, 2024
In the book Humble Leadership: The Power of Relationships, Openness, And Trust by Edgar and Peter Schein the authors repeatedly return to a particular concept: Situational Humility. When I first saw this term, it threw me. It reminded me of the phrase situational ethics, which “takes into account only the particular context of an act…
By: Kally Elliott on October 21, 2024
In the first page of their introduction of their book, Humble Leadership: The Power of Relationships, Openness, and Trust, Edgar H. Schein and Peter A. Schein ask, “Would it help to think of leadership not as the “7 Steps” you must take to lead, but as the energy that is shared among members of a…
By: Jenny Dooley on October 21, 2024
Humility seems rare in our current US political environment, western culture, and sadly, at times, among our more public religious leaders. Maybe humble leaders don’t make the news, but they exist. Genuine humility is essential whether one is leading or following. Defining and practicing humility is a challenge. I wonder how false humility has become…
By: Esther Edwards on October 21, 2024
I recently asked my daughters and sons-in-law (all millennials and Gen Z’s) what they would look for in a church and a pastor. Our family message thread was immediately flooded. These were their responses: In a congregation: a small congregation where we could get involved quickly opportunities to grow and be mentored to know the…
By: Cathy Glei on October 21, 2024
As I read this week’s reading of Humble Leadership: The Power of Relationships, Openness, and Trust by Edgar Schein and Peter Schein, I made several leadership connections to other texts I have read in the last 2+ years. This is an attempt to highlight some of those connections between the texts. As our world rapidly…
By: Travis Vaughn on October 21, 2024
Leadership is already hard. Humble leadership is…harder? I’d compare the kind of leadership described in Humble Leadership, by Edgar H. Schein and Peter A. Schein, to the sort of well-differentiated prowess one needs in order to navigate the intersection of emotionally healthy leadership and the technical expertise required to get the job done. To be…
By: Noel Liemam on October 20, 2024
“The Evangelicalism in Modern Britain: A History from the 1730’s to the 1980’s,” by D.W. Bebbington and a chapter 2 from Dr. Jason Clark Thesis, titled “Evangelical Anxiety: From Assurance to Providence” are the assigned readings from this blogpost. For me, Bebbington’s is so comprehensive to grasp in and fully understand within the time frame.…
By: Joel Zantingh on October 19, 2024
Assurance, confidence and narrowness of focus all meet each other on the same road leading to ‘success’. Growing up in 20th Century North America was like being in a pressure cooker of success, spurred on by capitalism’s constant call for innovation, and the delivery of the next great artifact, product or solution to peddle to…
By: Julie O'Hara on October 18, 2024
About 15 years ago I attended a church welcome class that opened with a session designed to place that particular church within the stream of historical Christianity. The leader differentiated between Roman Catholic/Protestant, Calvinist/Wesleyan-Arminian, and conservative/liberal, this last being less about church history and more about the politics of social issues. Then, the leader shared…
By: Dinka Utomo on October 17, 2024
According to data from the Central Statistics Agency (B.P.S.) of Indonesia in 2023, the proportion of individuals who master gadgets at age 5-14 years is 36.99%, and aged 15-24 is 92.14%. In general, Indonesia holds the world record for the longest screen time per day, which is 6.05 hours per day, beating Thailand…
By: Jana Dluehosh on October 17, 2024
This book was hard to read. It was a dagger in my heart as a mom of 3 teenage boys. What Jonathan Haidt wrote in his book The Anxious Generation was not surprising or new information for me. I believe my husband and I have been struggling with this addiction to screen time since our…
By: Chad Warren on October 17, 2024
I recently met with 20 key leaders in our church, discussing our doctrinal statement and those beliefs that distinguish our church. I indicated that, most simply, we are a Christian, Evangelical, Baptist, and Congregational church. Immediately, a hand shot up, and one of our leaders asked, “What does it mean that we’re ‘Evangelical,’ and how…
By: Daren Jaime on October 17, 2024
Journeying through ministry I am mindful of some of my ministerial mentors and those who taught me polity and liturgy. One such professor was Dr. Odinga Maddox. Dr. Maddox was a respected pastor, leader, and critical thinker. During one of his lectures, he reminded this novice group of emerging leaders to form ecumenical bonds. When…
By: Christy on October 17, 2024
Consumerism has taken the west by storm. In 2020, Relevant Magazine published that “Nearly half the world’s toys are in America. Despite making up just over 3 percent of the global population of children, American kids consume 40 percent of the world’s toys.”[1] Consumerist culture runs deep in the west with the temptation to shop…
By: Adam Harris on October 17, 2024
About a month ago, my family, which includes my wife and two boys, ages 8 and 14, were having a barbeque with two other families from our church who also have boys. That means seven boys in all. You can imagine the noise levels, chaos, and energy when they were all together. Ironically, my friend…
By: Jonita Fair-Payton on October 17, 2024
Anxiety I had a conversation this week with a client that shared that they suffer from anxiety. They shared it in a conversation that the topic was not their mental health but as an explanation of how they responded or didn’t respond in a situation. The interesting thing about this situation is that I did…
By: Kari on October 17, 2024
Titles. Labels. Boxes. These categories help us organize thoughts, ideas, things, and even people. “Evangelical” is a name by which one can classify a type of Christianity. I have always considered myself an evangelical, but I have rarely used that word to label myself—that is, until I moved to France to study French. I enjoyed…
By: Elysse Burns on October 17, 2024
Evangelicalism has experienced many changes since its emergence in the 1730s, making it often hard to define.[1] D.W. Bebbington’s Evangelism in Modern Britain: A History from the 1730s to the 1980s outlines the basis of Evangelicalism and further analyzes and explains the movement’s changes. Bebbington writes concerning Evangelicalism’s quadrilateral of priorities, “There are four qualities…
By: Ryan Thorson on October 17, 2024
“You best start believing in ghost stories, Miss Turner…you’re in one!” This famous line from one of my favorite movies, Pirates of the Caribbean, echoed in my ears as I read through the history of evangelicalism. Elizabeth Turner longed for adventure but when she was taken hostage by cursed pirates she didn’t believe what she’d…
